


A Matter of Perspective

by JulyStorms



Series: Before Colors Broke into Shades [34]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 03:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3676026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulyStorms/pseuds/JulyStorms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nanaba's voice startled him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Matter of Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: #6. Things you said under the stars and in the grass. Requested by [Landofcheese](http://landofcheese.tumblr.com) on Tumblr.

"It looks different out here, doesn't it?"

Nanaba's voice startled him; it shouldn't have, not the man who could smell titans from miles away and could even guess effectively how many there were. Nothing should have been able to startle him. He forced his shoulders to relax and turned slightly so that he could see Nanaba's face.

She was smiling, and her chin was lifted, eyes glancing above them.

"There's no real difference," he told her.

She tilted her head down, her smile widening slightly. "But for some reason, it still looks different, don't you think?"

She was right, of course.

"I'm sure Hange has," he began, slowly, "a theory or two."

Nanaba snorted, and Mike hated that he found it endearing. "I don't think I'm ready to be exposed to that much knowledge," she told him. "I _would_ like to sleep tonight. At least a little bit."

A little sleep was all any of them could ask for. Even feeling secure in the dark wasn't enough to make sleep easy to come by. They had so much else to think about: like who would be beside them when the expedition ended, and who would be left behind, scraps of flesh and blood in an open field.

Mike tugged absently at the blades of grass at his side. "I have a theory," he admitted.

Nanaba looked down at him, turning her whole head. Her smile shifted—changed. "Yeah?" she asked, and when he nodded slightly, she sank down to join him on the ground. "Well, I _do_ have _some_ time. So what's this theory of yours?"

He twisted the stem of a dandelion between his fingers before it snapped off and he abandoned it where it had once grown. The fluffy white seeds started to scatter in the warm breeze. "Well," he started, tipping his own head back to look up at the sky, "even though the walls don't interfere much with the sky, I think they make all the difference."

"So you're saying it's a matter of perspective." Nanaba lifted one leg over the other and stretched both out in front of her. The toe of her crossed-over leg leaned toward his knee and tapped it gently. "The walls give us the illusion of the sky not being free, which is why it looks so much more open when we're outside of the walls."

"Yes," he said. "But there could be other walls, couldn't there? Further out?"

"Would the sky look prettier if we found our way to the other side of those walls, or would it look the same?"

"Hm."

"If we assume it's all a matter of perspective," she added.

"We don't know if walls further out exist or not...so it would probably look the same."

"Until we knew the difference?" she asked.

"Yes."

"I think so, too," she told him. "I don't think I'm missing out on anything too spectacular, though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Things look pretty nice right here."

The toe of her boot prodded at his knee again, and he lowered his gaze to find Nanaba looking at him instead of up at the sky. Perhaps foolishly, he thought that maybe, this time, she wasn't talking about the sky.


End file.
